Casting Pearls Before Swine.

Matthew 7: 6

 Introduction and Recap.

The point Jesus has been making in this opening to chapter 7 is how can we be concerned about a comparison about what is a trivial matter a trivial defect in someone else when you have a much more serious problem of the same nature. He or she has a speck of dust in their eye you have a total telephone pole sticking out of yours. But you see what’s buried in the statement is the principal that you may need to help this brother in the future deal with a problem, but you have got to make sure you are prepared spiritually to offer such help.  So, what you need to do is take care of your problem first and that’s why I say the point of these verses is you need to judge you first. You need to judge yourself, In the first chapter of Galatians Paul says this.

Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.

(Galatians 6: 1)

Pay close attention because it warns that in trying to help other people, we ourselves might be tempted, especially if there is a residue of the same sin undealt with within us. It’s likely it’s not that brother or sister that need to be corrected it’s that you need to correct yourself first before you go correct other people. That is the point, deal with yourself first.

True story, in a small village in a rural English county it was in the Southwest of England, but the police never named it. It was having a problem with speeding drivers driving through the village at night, so this little community got together they decided to ask the local police to do something about it and 80% of the adults in the village signed a petition that they should put a traffic control lights at the village crossroads. The police responded initially by doing a 6-hour road survey whereby they set up a patrol to measure the speed of drivers passing through the village. On the first night they gave five speeding tickets, and all five had signed the petition. They want to correct the problem but didn’t look at themselves first. So, all that Jesus is saying is start with yourself, that’s what Jesus is teaching.

Now let’s pause here for a second get our perspective, Jesus begins the passage by saying, “judge not”, that is don’t judge other people wrongly.

Second thing he says is, “judge yourself first”, and that leads to a third concept and that is to help you see the very point he’s just made and versus three and four. That is if there is another person who has a problem then you should be prepared and equipped to help them. But don’t go help them until you’ve dealt with yourself. First remove the plank from your own eye and then you will clearly see to remove the spec from your brother's eye. He is clearly teaching at this point that you ought to first deal with yourself and then you ought to go help other people.

He calls the person not judging themselves first of all a hypocrite because he has been using his criticism to deflect from his own sin, and he’s trying to pass it off like a kind act of kindness. That kind of judgment of others is hypocrisy because it pretends to show our concern for righteousness, but the person has been criticizes others with an unforgiving spirit while having the same problem themselves. So, judge yourself first and remove the blockage from your own eye first and then go help others.  The Pharisees judged and criticized others to make themselves look good, but Christians should judge themselves so they can help others look good and that’s the point he’s making in this passage. If you first deal with your own fault then you’re in a position to help somebody else who has the same fault, you could go to them and say what God has done for me he can do for you. You can say you only have sawdust in your eye, I had a whole tree in mine. Then you’re in a position to help that other person.

By the way Jesus uses the one part of the body, the eye, to make it point and that’s rather interesting to me. Because the eye, is one of the most sensitive parts of the body. Maybe there is embedded in this illustration the idea if you’re going to go help somebody else be tender. Have you ever helped someone get something out of their eye you’re dealing with the most sensitive part of the body and you need to be close to them and look deeply at them and be gentle when you take it out. So be careful when you do this, I think that’s another point being made here. 

Maybe the other persons problem is as big as yours was, so go help them but only if you have dealt with your own issues first.

Pearls Before Swine.

The final verse in this section is a very interesting, unusual statement that’s made at this point, look at verse 6.

 “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.

(Matthew 7: 6)

What’s that all about? How did we get here, I mean, don’t cast your Pearl before swine, what does that mean?  He just said go help people right well I think this is put in there to say that what he says in verse 5 is not absolute, that there’s a restriction. You shouldn’t try to correct everybody, or repeatedly. That’s the point of this verse. There are people who have problems, and you should try and help them, but there are people who have problems, and you should not and that’s what Jesus is teaching in verse 6. But why shouldn’t you help some people. Well in the first place they won't appreciate they’re like dogs or pigs, now we use dogs as pets today but in the ancient world in Jesus’ day a dog was not the domesticated animal like a pet that it is today, In those days dogs scavenged on garbage and had a scrawny appearance and pigs were excluded from what was thought of as holy. They where considered unclean, and it was unthinkable that a Jew would ever eat pork or have anything to do with a pig or a dog for that matter and you certainly wouldn’t take something that was holy or valuable and feed it to a dog or a pig. Notice what he says about the pig, if you take a pearl and put it in a pig pen it will just trample on it.  You can give spiritual advise (a pearl of wisdom), a truth to some people and all they’ll do is trample on it.

Facing Pushback

Then notice what he says in verse 6, they might even turn and tear you to pieces, isn’t that interesting. So, there’s some people you shouldn’t even try to help, because if you do they will not only reject it with contempt they might turn around and savage you for it. So, another factor in dealing with others is to take their character and their conduct into consideration. Exercise discernment, discretion, or somebody who said Christians may be sheep, but that doesn’t mean we should let people pull the wool over our eyes. So, you need to exercise some discretion in these situations. What you need to do is probe gently and see how receptive they are. I find this verse particularly enlightening, and I think I have learned this truth through some experiences, bitter experiences. What I’ve learned is this if you try to correct somebody be careful because they will often turn their anger against you. I think I’ve experienced having people turn on me and more than I care to remember I’ve experience that, so I’ve learned not to do that. As a matter of fact, Jesus said something in another context in another relationship that I think was helpful. Sometimes its the timing that’s just wrong, I talk to people all the time and think to myself if you would only hear me, I think I have some things to pull out of scripture that might really help but maybe because the way I approach it, or how I say it, they can’t handle it. But remember the main thing that Jesus is saying is deal with yourself before you help others but be careful, and if they are not receptive, don’t go there. Some people you shouldn’t even try to help, Solomon says he who corrects a scoffer gets shamed himself and he who tries to rebuke a wicked man only harms himself. Do not correct a scoffer lest he hate you, but  rebuke a wise man, and he will love you, that’s proverbs, by the way. Again, the book of proverbs tells us, do not speak in the hearing of a fool for he will despise the wisdom of your words. Proverbs 23 verse 9.

The first point Jesus is making is very simple don’t judge other, but meaning don’t be being critical, picking people apart, and secondly judge yourself first before judging or even offering to help other. And thirdly go help some other people bearing in mind you can’t help everybody, sometimes because they won’t let you, or because they might turn on you and you might get your head ripped off. This is all just a really good description of what practical wisdom should look like.

Summary

Let me sum it all up make a suggestion or two. 

The sum of what I think Jesus is teaching in this passage is you shouldn’t have a spirit of condemnation but rather you should judge yourself so you can help others. Or as someone has said so eloquently, instead of pointing a fault-finding finger hold out a helping hand.  I think that says it very well. Also remember in the context of the Sermon on the Mount the overall teaching is about righteousness, and there is a self-righteousness and a godly righteousness. There is a legal righteousness, which is just an external, just for show type of righteousness, and a real righteousness, an internal righteousness.

There is a spirit of criticism and condemnation which is just a form of self-righteousness. That’s not true righteousness when we put down others to make ourselves look good. Harsh criticism and condemnation and judging is the mark of a self-righteous person trying to gain a righteous reputation by delighting in the faults and flaws of others. Mark that down, and mark it well, someone who is constantly criticizing others is really self-righteous, and they’re trying to gain a righteous reputation by putting others down. I know people like that, I can name them, I don’t even like to be around them because I know when I’m around them we’re not going to have a conversation that is edifying. I just know what I will hear will be about them finding something wrong or something I said wrong. They are probably also going to find something wrong with me also. What is really going on is they are trying to put everybody else down, so they can put themselves above everybody else. 

What we all need its real righteousness, but we will first have to deal with our own heart, honestly ruthlessly. We need to take the two by four out of our own eyes and be critical of ourselves even harder on ourselves than we are on others. Then only when the circumstances are right we can judge others impartially. I’m told that the ancient Greeks when they had a particularly difficult but important trial would conduct the trial in the dark, turn out all the lights so that the judge and the jury could not see the defendant and all they could hear were the facts being presented. Ruthlessly deal with yourself, and then be equally ruthless in insisting on getting all the facts before judging any other person or situation, instead of just being critical and fault finding.

In one of her novels Agatha Christie tells a story that I think gets at the point that if you don’t do that you’re going to be judged by that same standard by others. In the novel I am thinking about, there is a magistrate that didn’t have any patience with law breakers. In fact he thought they should all be punished to maximum power of the law, with exception rigor. He says we need to make an example of them, if you catch someone on the wrong side of the law let the law punish them to the max. Do you agree, he asked another character who was a vicar and he replied, you forget my calling obligates me to respect one quality above all, the quality of mercy should take precedent over judgment.

When my time comes, I should be sorry if the only plea I had to offer on that just was that of justice, because it might mean that only justice would be meted out to me. So, we always have a choice, you can either exercise justice or, mercy, but just not whichever way you go is the way you will be judged by father God. We can be so thankful that although God is a God of justice, he is also a God of mercy and in his mercy, you were saved by grace and love. Our judgement is not based on anything we did but solely based on what Christ did.